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Warfare and Society in Early Greece Brouwers, J.J VU Research Portal Warfare and Society in Early Greece Brouwers, J.J. 2010 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Brouwers, J. J. (2010). Warfare and Society in Early Greece: From the Fall of the Mykenaian Palaces to the End of the Persian Wars. Eigen Beheer. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 Chapter 1 Introduction 1. The argument This book is about warfare and martiality in ancient Greece in the period between roughly the fall of the Mykenaian palaces and the end of the Persian Wars, or down to around 500 (all dates are B.C. unless otherwise noted). I here take ‘warfare’ to encompass all activities in which fighting takes centre stage, from pitched battles to raids, from ambushes to sieges. ‘Martiality’ refers to the totality of martial values espoused primarily by the elite, but supported by the lower social groups within Greek communities.1 Whereas warfare consists of violent activities aimed at obtaining one or more specific goals (riches, slaves, glory, and so on), martiality plays an important role in shaping and defining social structures in times of peace. One might say that warfare is extrovert, creating an arena in which two communities come to blows over something (or, indeed, someone); martiality is introvert, a totality of martial values used to structure and shape a specific community and its constituent social groups. Exactly what part or parts warfare and martiality played in shaping Early Greece is a question to be answered in the course of this book. The period under examination is very dynamic. At the end of the Bronze Age, in the decades around 1200, the earlier palace civilisation that flourished in Greece met with catastrophe. Many of the palaces, which formed the heart of this society, were destroyed by unknown assailants. The following period, referred to as Late Helladic IIIC (roughly the twelfth and part of the eleventh centuries), saw the slow decay of this culture until it vanished, although there is some continuity (especially as regards chariots and warships). The Early Iron Age, the period between 1000 and 700, was a time of renewal, a formative period. A new kind of complex society slowly rose from the ashes of the earlier palace civilisation. The earliest historical period, i.e. a time when writing was in relatively common usage, is referred to as the Archaic period (roughly the seventh and sixth centuries). Traditionally, it ends with the so-called Persian Wars, a number of battles fought between 490 and 479 during which many of the cities of Greece joined in alliance to fend off an invasion from the mighty Persian Empire. To sum up, the period under examination sees the fall and subsequent rise of complex societies and their associated sociopolitical structures in the 1 Cf. Roymans 1996, 13-14 (on Gallic martiality). 13 Aegean. Will developments in warfare and martiality prove equally dynamic? Much of Greece consists of mountains; there is comparatively little flat arable land except in Boiotia, Thessaly, and other regions further north. In Asia Minor, Greek cities were founded along the coast in river plains, close to areas under the control of larger Eastern empires. So throughout the entire Greek Aegean world, much of the available land is fragmented; add to this the many small islands that dot the Ionian and Aegean Seas. These geographical factors no doubt fostered the development of relatively small, autonomous communities following the collapse of the Bronze-Age palaces. These small communities, often consisting of a central, more or less urban settlement and its surrounding countryside, are often referred to as poleis, ‘city-states’. As the landscape is so fragmented, it seems probable that communities differed from each other to a greater or lesser degree. What parts did warfare and martial values play in shaping these societies? The regional variety and the dynamic history in the period under examination means that one expects the ancient Greek communities to be equally diverse. However, most modern authors present ancient Greece, including the developments in military matters, as a homogeneous entity, with innovations in one place being regarded as more or less representative for developments within the Aegean basin as a whole. Two cities in particular are often discussed by modern authors, namely Athens and Sparta. Much of the modern debate is distinctly Athenocentric, with evidence for Sparta used as a kind of counterpoint. Sparta was a bit of an oddity in the Classical period (say the fifth and fourth centuries), as its entire society was geared for war. However, during the period under examination neither Athens nor Sparta rose to prominence until relatively late. Other settlements were perhaps more powerful, such as Korinth and Argos. In this book, I look not just as Athens and Sparta, but try to trace regional developments throughout the Aegean area; the purpose is not to write yet another Athenocentric pastiche of ancient Greek warfare. In order to capture the diversity in space and time, a different approach is adopted in this book compared to what has become the norm. I have grouped the evidence into three classes, namely the literary sources (Homer, Archaic sources, and Herodotos), the iconographic evidence (vase-paintings, and so on), and the material remains (such as weapon graves). Special emphasis is placed on regional diversity, and in many instances the evidence is discussed according to region, such as the Argolid or Euboia. Furthermore, the data is generally presented in chronological order. This approach allows the comparison of different types of evidence and evidence from different times and places. The overall purpose of my research was to produce a dynamic study on warfare and martiality, and the way these aspects helped to shape social structures and, ultimately, decide the course of ancient Greek history. 2. Problems and possibilities Much has been published on ancient Greek warfare already. The reader 14 may wonder why anyone would want to write yet another book on so well-trodden a subject? I will try to answer that question in the following two subsections. Firstly, I will discuss some of the flaws or problems that I believe have hindered our understanding of Greek warfare and martiality. I will not provide a summary of the main points in scholarly debates; for that, I refer the reader to the detailed bibliographical essay in J.E. Lendon’s recent book Soldiers and Ghosts. 2 Rather, I wish to point out major flaws in methodology. Secondly, I present the possibilities that are still available in our particular field, but which for the most part have remained untapped. a. Problems There is a wealth of secondary literature on ancient Greek warfare; however, much of it tends to focus on very narrow problems. In particular, much ink has been spent discussing the problems of the so-called ‘hoplite phalanx’. The term ‘hoplite’ was applied to a specific type of heavy-armed warrior, characterised by a large round shield with a double-grip, who used a thrusting spear as his main weapon. The ‘phalanx’ was the rectangular battle-formation used by hoplites. The earliest ‘hoplites’ are thought to have appeared around 700. Questions on when, where, and how they came about, when they adopted the phalanx formation, and whether or not these developments had any political repercussions, have been at the centre of the scholarly debate up to the present moment.3 The numerous monographs and articles that have appeared on the hoplite phalanx demonstrate some of the flaws that characterise much of the available secondary literature. Emphasis is usually placed quite squarely on the literary evidence. Authors from different periods and places are often mixed together. For example, data gleaned from Xenophon’s writings (fourth century) are used next to information taken from Herodotos (floruit around 450) to arrive at a more or less static, or ‘monolithic’ picture of warfare in ancient Greece. As a result, changes in time and regional developments are largely ignored. Furthermore, there is a tendency to take information from relatively late authors to fill in any gaps for earlier periods; this often unwittingly fosters the adoption of a teleological perspective. The end result is a picture of warfare in ancient Greece that is static, monolithic, and anachronistic; a pastiche, rather than an accurate reflection of complex and dynamic historical processes. A relatively recent development is the shift in emphasis away from describing military technologies, battles and wars. Instead, a new area of investigation has emerged. Some scholars attempt to understand the experience of the individual Greek fighter in combat. These studies draw their inspiration from John Keegan’s influential book, The Face of Battle (1976). Among modern students of ancient Greece, Keegan’s most devoted follower is Victor Davis Hanson.4 This development is regrettable, as it only serves to further narrow the scope of Greek warfare.
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